Supreme Court case could affect prayers at Indiana government meetings

5:46 PM,
Nov. 1, 2013

Indiana House of Representatives Speaker Brian Bosma (cq), (R-Indianapolis), joins other representatives in prayer at the back of the House chambers at the Indiana Statehouse on Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2006, a few minutes before the opening gavel dropped, parting tradition from the past, when prayer invoking the name of Jesus Christ (cq) was permitted after the session was officially opened. After a court ruling late in 2005, today's official session did not include an invocation, beginning instead with began Rep. Patrick Bauer (cq) (D-South Bend) leading the body in the Pledge of Allegiance. (Charlie Nye / The Indianapolis Star).

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The Supreme Court takes up Wednesday the question of whether government meetings can begin with prayer, an issue that has been debated in Indiana and other states since the court last ruled on the subject in 1983.

The current case comes from New York, where the town of Greece was sued by two citizens arguing that opening board meetings with a prayer violates the Constitution's prohibition against government preferring one religion over another.

The issue was debated in Indiana when the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana challenged in 2005 the longstanding tradition of having ...